REPORT ON KALMAN K. BRATTMAN

The following is a report on Kalman K. Brattman, Managing Editor, Isurvived.org, Holocaust Survivors’ Network, NatureQuest and RealDeal Publications.

This document is intended to provide information to individuals and organizations who have been contacted or attacked by Kalman Brattman and Isurvived.org, Holocaust Survivors’ Network, or have viewed his websites. His aliases are Ilan, editor [no last name], Avi, editor [no last name], Miriam, editor [no last name], Eva, assistant editor [no last name], Judith, book review editor [no last name], Jennifer, editor [no last name], Bruce Attman, Steve Attman, Steve Grunfeld, webmaster, and the First Assist Team (FAST).

Kalman K. Brattman, Isurvived.org

A search of the Internet, Nexus-Lexus, Massachusetts Court cases and the writings of Kalman K. Brattman himself creates this portrait of him. Kalman's writings about himself cannot be taken at face value. His writings are self-promoting, and are probably highly exaggerated, if not completely untrue.

On the Internet there is a long 16-part narrative called “Klim’s Great Escape,” (formerly “Kalman’s Great Escape”; referred to hereafter as “Escape”) that is an autobiography written by Kalman K. Brattman of Malden, Massachusetts. It appeared in many places on the Internet, under many different addresses, one of which is: http://www.kalmanonline.com. (Downloaded June 2003.)

The author of “Escape” gives his name only as “Kalman” with no last name. On the site it establishes Kalman’s age precisely by saying:

The address on the site is “NatureQuest Publications, Inc.,” in Cambridge, Massachusetts – the same address given for the web site “Isurvived.org,” known to be written by Kalman K. Brattman (see below).

In the document “Escape,” Brattman discloses the following:

HIS JEWISH BACKGROUND. In “Escape” Brattman talks about the fact that growing up in Romania, he did not know much about his Jewish background. “My Jewish education at that time was non-existent notwithstanding the fact that my both parents were non-practitioning [sic] Jews. …until I was 17 I was not aware of my Jewish heritage much less of Jewish traditions.”

HE CLAIMS TO BE A REFUGEE FROM ROMANIA. “Escape” is a long, 16-part account of how K. K. Brattman left Romania and came to the United States in April, 1969, allegedly seeking political asylum. He says that he came to the U.S. via Yugoslavia, Austria, and Italy…”

CAREER WITHIN THE US. Kalman started his life in America in Pittsburgh and then went to Chicago. He mentions not liking his living arrangements in Pittsburgh:

“… I did not like at all my living arrangements which were in a home of ultra-orthodox Jews. You could not turn on the lights, radio or TV on Saturdays, you could not mix dairy products with meat products, you had to place the silverware in specially designated locations, etc. In short, these restrictions for me made my life miserable and, I knew that I was in the wrong place and that I had to get out of what I considered to be an absurdly ridiculous and irrational confinement.”

Consequently, he moved to space rented to him by a rich widow who he says gave an annual donation of $100,000 to HIAS. Brattman describes her as saying to him: “Our family owns three (3) factories of towels here in Pittsburgh and my late husband until his untimely death was in charge of them.”

But Brattman left there, he says, because the woman wanted him to marry her daughter and he did not want to. The widow explained that “if she marries a Jewish man, then she will get a ten thousand dollars ($10,000) wedding gift plus a percentage for life as an inheritance from the profits of the three (3) factories.” But “if my daughter marries a non-Jewish man, then she will receive five dollars ($5) and nothing more for her inheritance.”

But the daughter didn’t like Jews! But this is why the widow thought that Kalman might make the perfect husband for her: “Now, because of your Eastern European background, you had little Jewish observance and Jewish life in Romania and thus, you could be accepted much easier by my daughter than that of an active practitioner of the Jewish faith. This is why I am interested that you show some patience as I am sure that my daughter would come around once she recognizes your background.”

In April, 1970, Brattman went to Chicago where he claims he got a job as a fact checker in astronomy for the Encyclopedia Britannica. He speaks of working 2 years in Chicago. And that’s where “Escape” ends.

COURT RECORDS IN MASSACHUSETTS. The next thing we know about Kalman K. Brattman comes from court records in Massachusetts.

In December, 1978, in COMMONWEALTH v. KALMAN K. BRATTMAN, Brattman was indicted on assault to commit rape charges and he acted as his own attorney. He was found guilty.

The court summary read,

“At the trial of a defendant [Kalman K. Brattman] charged with assault with intent to commit rape, evidence that the defendant had committed an assault and battery on the victim, had attempted to restrain her, and had made sexual advances to the victim against her will was sufficient to warrant denial of the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict.”

But then, in September, 1980, the verdict was reversed, with the court saying that while “there was evidence of an assault and battery and of an attempt to restrain the complainant,” and while “There was evidence of a struggle and also evidence that the defendant had made sexual advances to the victim against her will,” Brattman had stopped after objections by the complainant and thus it was not clear that he had intended to commit rape.

The record goes on to say: “There is no question that the defendant acted most foolishly in this regard…A review of the transcript in this case shows that the tasks of the judge and the jury were made far more difficult by the rambling discourses and useless objections of the defendant…”

Brattman was subsequently retried, and in 1982 found guilty of assault. He was given a six-month suspended sentence.

There is record of two other linked cases, one of them, KALMAN K. BRATTMAN v. SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH, and the other, KALMAN K. BRATTMAN v. MICHAEL J. CONNOLLY, with the matter finally being decided in 1995. The State of Massachusetts had decided that since Brattman had not paid required fees for his two Massachusetts non-profit corporations, NatureQuest Corporation and NatureQuest Publications, Inc., the State should dissolve those corporations, which it was entitled to do under the law. Brattman, again acting as his own attorney, objected, saying first, that the fees, then $15 per year per corporation, should be waived in his case because his corporations did not have sufficient funds to pay them, and secondly, that the state had erred in citing the wrong statue in dissolving his corporations. The case was decided in a way such that Brattman had to pay the fees, but the corporations could keep running.

ISURVIVED.ORG. The next we know of Kalman K. Brattman is that on December 15, 2002, he opened a web site called, “Isurvived.org,” with many links to articles about the Holocaust. The title suggests that Brattman himself was a Holocaust survivor, but we know from “Escape” that this is not so.

On that site there is a Massachusetts address that indicates that he might now live in the Cambridge area, in the Harvard Square area:

OTHER SITES. It also appears that Brattman has about 20 other Internet sites. In one of them, one called “Real Deal Science,” at www.realdeal.org, Brattman explains the way he likes to engage in debates. He says:

"The RealDeal Science Forum of Debates is designed to engage the reader in … debates which sometimes could be ferocious. The 'instigator' of any science topic for debate presented here shall always be vested in a singular, or devil's advocate view article aimed at attacking with the intent of demolishing an established or prevailing view. After that, articles or points of views designed to squash, suppress, crush, or annihilate the instigator's point of view shall be presented and a debate pro and con of the issues at hand shall commence. The ultimate beneficiary of such science debates shall be science itself as these debates shall result in revealing and/or magnifying certain holes that may exist in a prevailing theory…"

HE ATTACKS AND THREATENS AN EVER-WIDENING GROUP OF TARGETS. The sequence of events delineated below indicates a repetitive pattern of jumping to conclusions to support attacks and character assassination and threats to notify authorities. As new people or organizations emerge that undercut his original thesis, he attacks them with the same vitriol:

FIRST PHASE: ATTACK THE BINGHAMS. In the initial phase, the attacks were against R. Kim Bingham, son of Hiram Bingham, IV, and who has a website proposing a U.S. stamp in honor of his father. Hiram Bingham IV was a distinguished American diplomat who helped save hundreds of Jewish and other refugees from the Nazis. In a threatening May 17, 2003, email to Kim Bingham, Brattman wrote:

“a) we will be contacting the United States Post Master General alerting of this apparent fraudulent operation that you have been coordinating and opposing the issuance of a commemorative stamp for Hiram Bingham IV;

”b) we will be contacting the United States Justice Department (in
conjunction of the FBI) to investigate your deceiving tactics in regard to this matter; and finally,

c) we will be contacting the State Department to receive, pursuant to the Freedom Information Act, all the information and evidence that you have supplied that led the State Department on June 27, 2002 to issue for your dad the posthumous "Courageous Diplomat" award and to inquire as whether this award needs to be discredited and, in addition, whether a criminal prosecution is warranted for your actions."

Note: Bingham has since received a Letter of Commendation from Yad Vashem for his rescue activities on behalf of Jews. A United States commemorative postage stamp was issued in honor of Hiram Bingham IV in April 2006.

In this first phase, Brattman also attempted to assassinate the character of Hiram Bingham, IV.

Finally, as a part of this first phase, Brattman accused Kim Bingham of duping Eric Saul, the curator of the “Visas for Life” exhibit, saying in an e-mail “I believe that you somehow was [sic] able to take advantage of him in your pursuit of establishing a record for your dad that simply does not exist in the way that you purports [sic] to exist.”

SECOND PHASE: ATTACK DESCENDANTS OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS. The second phase occurred when Brattman attacked descendants of a Holocaust survivors who tried to assist Kim Bingham, calling their effort one “of deceit and fraud.” He goes on to say: “Finally, how dare you are to [sic] claim of [sic] representing ‘all Holocaust survivors and their descendants’ in this bogus postal petition? Who gave you that moral right for such a representation? How much have you been paid by Robert Kim Bingham to engage in such reprehensible campaign?” He goes on to threaten that “the FBI will be contacted by us to help with this investigation and with the possible criminal prosecution.”

In another message complaining about the issuance of stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday, Brattman adds this rant:

USPS New Stamp
This one is impossible to believe. Scroll down for the text.
If there is only one thing you forward today.....let it be this!
“REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm Flight 103!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military barracks in Saudi Arabia!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!
REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!
REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!
Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class holiday postage stamp.
REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp when purchasing your stamps at the post office. To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

THIRD PHASE: ATTACK ERIC SAUL. In the first phase, Brattman attacked Kim Bingham for “taking advantage” of Holocaust historian Eric Saul. But when Eric Saul contacted Brattman and pointed out, among many other things, that Brattman had the sequence of events wrong, and that Kim Bingham had been posting information on his Web site that came from Eric Saul, and not the other way round, Brattman shifted his attack to Saul, accusing him of participating in “elaborate schemes of fraud and deceit” with the title of his exhibit "Visas for Life: The Righteous and Honorable Diplomats." In a June 10, 2003, memo to Saul, Brattman said:

"A number of US Federal agencies, Jewish Organizations and other interested paries [sic], as well as agencies and interested parties from Israel and other parts of the world are interested to see our side of this important case..."

"Also could you tell us what, if any compensation, did you received [sic] from the Bingham family and or their representatives(s) over the years, first to incorporate the late Bingham IV into your exhibit and then to carry that exhibit in a number of locations including your visit in 1998 with the three Binghams [sic] brothers in Israel at Yad Vashem?..."

Note: K.K. Brattman was provided with extensive documentary evidence on the rescue activities of Hiram Bingham IV. This evidence came directly from the National Archives and Varian Fry's papers. Brattman completely ignored the report. In fact, Hiram Bingham, IV, had been honored in a major exhibit that was produced in 1993 on Varian Fry, “Varian Fry: Assignment Rescue 1940-1941.” The exhibit featured information on how Bingham had aided Fry and his Emergency Rescue Committee. In addition, numerous Holocaust survivors and their descendants have honored Bingham for saving their lives by issuing visas for them to escape Nazi-occupied territory.

FOURTH PHASE: ATTACK YAD VASHEM. In the fourth phase, Brattman widened his attack to Yad Vashem on his website, an event that came to light on June 30, 2003. In April 1993, Yad Vashem had hosted the “Visas for Life” exhibition. It opened during Yom Ha Shoah (the Holocaust day of commemoration). Discovering that Yad Vashem had actually displayed Eric Saul’s work in an exhibition in Israel, and thus seemed to be supporting it, Brattman refers to Eric Saul’s “diabolic and monstrous scheme,” claims that Saul has duped Yad Vashem, too, and concludes that “The deep wounds that he has inflicted upon Yad Vashem are so enormous that in all likelihood they would never be able to be healed completely.”

Faced with conduct by Yad Vashem that appears to undercut his original thesis, Brattman writes: “Let there be no mistake as to where we stand with respect to this enormously tragic occurrence: Every day, every hour, every minute, every second that Yad Vashem is promoting and/or is associated with Eric Saul’s Visas for Life” is an affront to the memory of the Holocaust and its victims, and is an affront to the survivors of the Holocaust.

“Respectfully, a fundamental question needs to be asked as to whether Yad Vashem can continue, in its current set up and with its current leadership, to remain as the official guardian of the Holocaust ‘grounds.’ "

He then goes on to liken this alleged deception of Yad Vashem to the Columbia disaster and calls for the establishment of an independent commission to investigate Yad Vashem:

“As in NASA's case, Yad Vashem must appoint an outside panel that could be called the Red Alert Investigative Department (abbreviated with the acronym RAID) whose foremost task would be to recommend to the Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate as well, as needed, to Knesset (the Israel's Parliament) of structural and operational changes that Yad Vashem needs to implement…"

But then, a little later in the same document, Brattman contradicts himself, saying that the whole situation is hopeless:

“There is nothing, but absolutely nothing, that Yad Vashem can do, in our considerate view, that can repair the damages created by Mr. Saul to its ‘Righteous Gentiles’ program. For all practical purposes this program is beyond recovery and its present continuance must be rendered suspect.”

The attack continues on Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, then Director of the Righteous Program at Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem.

Mr. Mordecai Paldiel, Director of the Department for the Righteous of Yad Vashem --The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, of Jerusalem, Israel, has expressed to us his Department's interest in our work on the Bingham IV case. While, we appreciate their interest, we emphatically state that we have no regard, respect or consideration for that Righteous Department under its current leadership. Most certainly, when the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) created that Department and the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ Program, they did not mean or contemplate to entrust such a program to 3rd rated professionals. As we have expressed our point of view elsewhere, the entire ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ Program must be rendered suspect as it represents, as currently operates, [sic] an affront to History, to the Holocaust and its victims and, to the great majority of the Holocaust survivors.

Based on the above stated background, we could care less in which way the decision will go with respect to the final outcome of the pending Petition with respect to the Righteous title for Hiram Bingham IV.

Just because Bingham IV was not a hero of the Holocaust, this in itself should not be a ground for disqualification. After all, there are others that were not heroes of the Holocaust and have been awarded with the Righteous title. Take for instance Dr. Feng Shan Ho of China or Captain László Ocskay of Hungary --two of the most recent such meritless recipients that have come to our attention.

The novel situation that the Bingham IV case presents is with respect to Bingham IV's horrendous transformation into a hater of Jews and a Holocaust denier due to his misfortunes in life. But that again should not be too big of a problem for Yad Vashem under its current leadership. After all, within the Yad Vashem's compounds, a tree (yes, a tree) has been allowed to be implanted by the Bingham family to honor Hiram Bingham IV. This is a first in the history of the Jewish State that a hater of Jews and Holocaust denier has found a place in Israel where he is honored!” [NOTE: no tree was planted at Yad Vashem for Hiram “Harry” Bingham. ES]

…It is our contention that an investigation needs to be made for determining whether Mr. Paldiel with its current Department for the Righteous is not in fact liable for criminal prosecution not only against the Jewish State but also against Yad Vashem and the memory of the Holocaust. The Israeli Supreme Court must issue perhaps an Order that will make null and void all the Righteous titles rendered under Mr. Paldiel's reign. Also, all the proceeds from various books and engagements that Mr. Paldiel had pocketed under the ‘color and prestige’ of his Office must be returned to Yad Vashem. The bedrock principles of ethics, morality, and human decency require such action. The prestige of one's Office should never ever be allowed to be used for private gains.

For all of the above grounds, we have no problem in supporting the issuance of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ title for the late Hiram ‘Harry’ Bingham IV as this will be able to prove, once and for all, how bankrupt the current Righteous program is under its current leadership.

Respectfully submitted,

K. K. Brattman
Managing Editor

Dated: August 7, 2003

BRATTMAN’S MOTIVES EXPLAINED

This e-mail message was received from “Avi,” [Brattman] Managing Editor of Isurvived.org on July 4, 2003. This memorandum gives insight into Kalman Brattman’s state of mind and motives.

“In my view, the "discovery" of Eric Saul was the perfect vehicle for our Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Brattman, to go after what he really wanted for quite some time --that of discrediting in totality the "Righteous Among the Nations" title. His main reason is based of his view that this title is first and foremost a "racist" title as it excludes in an automatic fashion one race --paradoxically, the Jewish race! In his adamant view, a title should be given on the merits regardless of one's race, creed, or religion and I am sure that he will have much more to say in his newly created section V of our website.”

In a subsequent email, “Avi” [Brattman] further elaborates on Brattman’s agenda:

“Changing the subject, your point is of course well taken that it is the
right and honorable thing for the Jewish State to express its gratitude
to those that have helped saving Jewish lives. But this never was an
issue for Mr. Brattman or for any of us. For Mr. Brattman the issue is
that an international humanitarian award should never exclude a race of people (in this case the Jewish race) but rather that everybody
regardless of the race, religion or creed should be judged exclusively
on the merits of their deeds and nothing else. I remember him stating
to all of us that the time has long come for the Israeli Parliament to
amend the provisions for the "Righteous" title where anybody, Jew or no Jew alike, to be able to be considered for the title.”

FIFTH PHASE: ATTACK HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SOLLY GANOR.

On February 21, 2004, Brattman attacked Solly Ganor.

Solly Ganor is a survivor of the Kovno (Kaunas) ghetto, Stutthof concentration camp, Landsberg-Kaufering concentration camp (outer camps of Dachau), and the Dachau death march and is a Holocaust survivor. His mother, sister and members of his extended family were murdered in the Holocaust. He is also a noted lecturer, author, and founding officer of the Survivors of the Outer Camps of Dachau Association in Israel. He is also a respected member of the Foundation of Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem. Solly Ganor is the author of a book about his experiences during the Holocaust, entitled Light One Candle. It was published by Kodansha America in 1995. Last year, the book was reprinted in trade paperback. Light One Candle has been translated into German and Japanese. Mr. Ganor has given Holocaust lectures all over the world for the last ten years.

Mr. Ganor is now 88 years old. Like many survivors of his age, is no longer in excellent health. The attack on Solly Ganor has caused him emotional distress.

Mr. Ganor received this e-mail from “Judith” [Brattman] at Isurvived.org.

We Jewish people do not light candles as this ritual is usually associated with people of the Catholic faith.[*] Your bogus and fictional Holocaust story has no place in our website and thus your book has been removed from our Select List posted in our Sect. VII.

It is regrettable indeed that you was able to dupe us with your
Holocaust fictional account and, I take full responsibility for this.

You must be a very sick person to make a living out of bogus Holocaust stories. (You undoubtedly must be in good company with another Holocaust imposter [sic] --the self-proclaimed historian with no academic credentials --your friend undoubtly [sic], Eric Saul.)

May God have mercy on your troubled soul.

Judith [Brattman]
Book Review Editor

*Brattman’s ignorance of Jewish custom and practice is remarkable. Jews light candles on the Sabbath, during Hanukah, and as memorials to the dead.

This outrageous statement calls Ganor a “Holocaust imposter.” In doing so, Brattman is attempting to deny a survivor’s experience, an unconscionable act of Holocaust denial.

You know very well from our 2 articles posted, that we view Eric Saul as a Holocaust researcher impostor with no academic credentials of any sort and his "Visas for Life" exhibit as a bogus "educational" Holocaust project.

We respectfully question your motive and financial gains of your association with Eric Saul and the Bingham family. We also are skeptical of the credibility of your Holocaust writings and as such I have ordered my staff to remove from our website all references with respect to your work that appears to self-promote you for financial gain and self-image at the expense of the Holocaust. People like you are quite dangerous as we have been reminded so eloquently by Dr. Joseph and Adrienne Lassman of Northridge, CA, USA, who gave us this stern warning:

‘There is an additional disturbing element in the broad spectrum of
recording, archiving and disseminating accurate information with respect to the Holocaust. This has to do with testimony from individuals as to their own Holocaust histories that proves to be partly or entirely bogus. Given that memories of some persons may be somewhat clouded by the passing of time, others have created their stories as fiction out of whole cloth. Some of these people have exploited the empathy and sympathy of others worldwide as they ply their "trade" as victims and survivors of this terrible history. It is as serious an issue in studying the Holocaust as dealing with and discrediting its deniers.

‘It is up to serious Holocaust scholars and archivists to be ever vigilant so that generations to come will have a body of work to study and from which to learn that is honest and accurate.’

Finally, do not consider us your friend since we are not, and please remove us from all of your mailing lists.

Thank you.

K. K. Brattman
Managing Editor

PS. How much money are you getting from the Bingham family to participate and promote this Holocaust charade? You are quite repugnant to us --make no mistake about this.

On March 11, 2004, a six-part, 21-page diatribe against Solly Ganor was published on the isurvived.org website (http://isurvived.org/4Debates/SollyGanor/001-SollyGanor.html):

“Solly Ganor, the Lithuanian Holocaust Survivor, Seeking Fame and Glory out of the Ashes of the Holocaust With a Little Help From His American Found Friend and Coach, Eric Saul,” by K. K. Brattman, Managing Editor, Dated: March 11, 2004.

Brattman asserts:

“There is next to a certainty that the little Solly Ganor never ever set foot into this camp from Poland much less to have been transferred from here to the Kaufering camps, part of the notorious Dachau Concentration Camp Complex in Germany.”

Solly lost his mother and brother and many members of his extended family to the Nazis in the Holocaust.

In Section II of the document (http://isurvived.org/4Debates/SollyGanor/002-SollyGanor.html), Brattman continues his theory:

“Well, we would not be too surprised to learn if Mr. Ganor is not in fact on the payroll of the Bingham family!…"

The following statement, buried deep in Brattman’s diatribe, summarizes his theory:

“With this being said, let us begin by noting that we have no direct evidence of any sort on Solly Ganor and that contrary to his expressed views, we are not the "judge and jury " of anything. Our opinion expressed herein and elsewhere is nothing but our opinion for whatever it is worth. Because we stay away from speculations, the only thing left in rendering our opinion is our rational deductive reasoning and the little evidence that is available to us.”

Dr. Barbara Distel, Director of the Dachau State Museum, wrote the following letter to K. K. Brattman regarding Solly’s authenticity as a Holocaust survivor. Despite receiving this letter, K. K. Brattman and the Isurvived.org/Holocaust Survivors’ Network maintain their libelous attack on Solly Ganor (as of May 2007).

This is to protest with vigour against chapter V ‘The Holocaust Controversy Page’ of your web-site ‘I survived the 20th Century Holocaust’. It is inconceivable that you dare to spread your slander story titled ‘The Solly Ganor Case of Deceit: Solly Ganor the Lithuanian Holocaust Survivor, Seeking Fame and Glory out of the Ashes of the Holocaust’ in the name of Holocaust survivors and supposedly in their interest. It is proven irrefutably by documentary evidence that Solly Ganor (Zali Genkind) was deported together with his father from Stutthof concentration camp to Dachau concentration camp on August 18th, 1944. The content of his book ‘Light one candle’ which has been published in Germany by the prestigious Fischer Taschenbuchverlag in Frankfurt (Das andere Leben, 1997) has been confirmed by other Lithuanian survivors as well as by historian specialists.

Mr. Ganor has been in Germany on various occasions. He has met with students and other groups, has had discussions with groups and individuals and spoke of his traumatic experiences as victim of the Holocaust. Again and again his audience was deeply impressed by his sincerity and his gift for finding words to describe boundless suffering. ‘Präzise Erinnerungsprosa - precise prose of recollection’ read one newspaper headline.

As the director of the Dachau concentration camp memorial site I object firmly to your outrageous attempt to damage the reputation of the Nazi victim and Holocaust survivor Solly Ganor. There are laws in Germany which make slander of Holocaust victims a punishable offence. I cannot take legal proceedings against you. But I will send copy of this letter to all institutions related to the history of the Nazi Holocaust in the USA.

Dr. Barbara Distel, Director

The following letter was written by the Association of Survivors Landsberg/Kaufering/ Outer camps of Dachau Affiliate of Dachau International. This letter was written by people who were with Solly in the Landsberg/Kaufering camps. Many of them were from Kovno, Lithuania, and knew him from childhood. As stated, they consider the attack on Solly to be an attack on their credibility and their experiences in the Holocaust.

Dr. Barbara Distel, the director of the Dachau Museum, has already expressed our feelings concerning Mr. Brattman and his I.Survived.Org, fictitious allegations against one of the members and directors of our association, Solly Ganor. (See Dr. Barbara Distel's letter below.) What makes his twenty-five-page diatribe against Solly Ganor bizarre is the fact that he openly declares the following:

‘With this being said, let us begin by noting that we have no direct evidence of any sort on Solly Ganor. The only thing left in rendering our opinion IS OUR RATIONAL DEDUCTIVE REASONING.’

What Mr. Brattman is actually telling us is that the twenty-five-page hate mail against Solly Ganor is nothing but a figment of his imagination! We leave it to your judgment as to how rational his reasoning is.

Here is our statement confirming the veracity of Solly Ganor as a Holocaust survivor and his book Light One Candle‚ as our genuine story.

Let it be known that Mr. Solly Ganor is known to all the members of our association since childhood. Most of us went through the Holocaust in Lithuania, Stutthof and the outer camps of Dachau together. Therefore Brattman's outrageous lies and defamation about his person in unacceptable. Let it also be known that any attack on Mr. Solly Ganor we consider an attack on all the members of our Association.

We further declare that we consider his book, Light One Candle: from Lithuania to Jerusalem, our own genuine story. The survivors and the editors of the English version and the German version of his book inspected the manuscript for any possible mistakes before it was published.

It is almost sixty years since our liberation and in all these years, we have never come across anything so malevolent and vicious as this document written by K.Brantman and his I.Survived Organizaton against a Holocaust survivor.

Since Brattman's main contention is that Solly Ganor has never been to the concentration camp of Stutthof or Dachau, and that he is in fact a Holocaust impostor, and that his book ‘Light One Candle’ is a bogus book, we present the following two documents which will once and for all refute Brattman’s lies against Solly Ganor and his book.

(1) Dr. Barbara Distel's letter. (Dr. Barabara Distel is the director of the Dachau Museum and Archives.) As you can see, she leaves no doubt as to how she feels about Brattman’s slanderous statements against Solly Ganor.

(2) From the Dachau archives: The arrival of Solly Ganor and his Dachau inmate’s number.

The following is a translation from the German:
Excerpt from the archives of the concentration camp of Dachau the names of the registered prisoners by alphabetic order
Explanation of the abbreviations:
Name: Genkind Solly (Solly Ganor)
Born: 18.5.1928, Kauen
Last known address: Kauen, Kalviu 13
Prisoner's number: 92298
Nationality: Lithuanian Jew
Arrived in Dachau 18.8.1944, from Stutthof.
Liberated on 2.5.1945
KZ-Gedenkstaetter Dachau, 24.3.2004
i.A Anne Stiller
______________

We have now presented irrefutable evidence against the malevolent website of I.Survived .org by Brattman. We expect an apology to Mr. Ganor, and the immmediate removal of the slander pages against him.

After defending Holocaust survivor Solly Ganor and Eric Saul in a newspaper article in Los Angeles, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, was attacked by K. K. Brattman on August 12, 2005. In the article, Cooper was quoted as saying about Brattman: “There are a lot of clever people out there who learn how to manipulate the [Internet] technology in order to spread their agenda of hatred.” In response, Kalman Brattman posted on his website a 7-page rambling article entitled “Responding to Rabbi Abraham Cooper’s Bizarre Stab-in-the-Back Attack on us Under the Umbrella of Attacking an ‘Agenda of Hatred’ and Opposing Rabbi Cooper’s Drive in Censoring the Internet.”

…In the article, he states: “There are people, such as Rabbi Cooer, that have no problem in throwing stones, left and right, under the umbrella that those actions are fighting hate and the evil when in fact, those very actions are exactly what hate and evil are made of…!”

Note: Rabbi Cooper is a leading expert on hate on the Internet. For years, Cooper and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have published an annual report on hate groups and anti-Semitism on the Internet. Their Museum of Tolerance even has an exhibit on this topic.

SEVENTH PHASE: ATTACK ON JOURNALIST JONATHAN TILOVE, OF THE NEWHOUSE NEWS GROUP

Jonathan Tilove, a reporter for the Newhouse newspapers, wrote an article entitled "Dachau Survivor's Reputation Wanders Turbulent Terrain of the Internet." This article discredited Kalman K. Brattman. (For text of article, see: www.israelim.com/tilove.htm.) Tilove discussed in detail Brattman's attack on Holocaust survivor Solly Ganor. Brattman responded to Tilove's defense of Solly Ganor on his website, posted June 22, 2006. Although Brattman disputed the veracity of Tilove's article, he also reiterated his own disclaimer, which clearly indicates the complete lack of foundation upon which Brattman's conclusions rest:

With this being said, let us begin by noting that we have no direct evidence of any sort on Solly Ganor and that contrary to his expressed views, we are not the 'judge and jury' of anything…

Our opinion expressed herein refuting Mr. Ganor's purported 'facts' is based on the massive indirect evidence that exists which is being filtered through our argument supplied.

Our formed opinion, for what is worth, it is just that—our opinion and nothing else. Because we stay away from speculations, the only thing left in rendering our opinion is our rational deductive reasoning based on Mr. Ganor's supplied evidence hereinbelow.

The editors of Wikipedia online encyclopedia soon discovered Kalman Brattman's use of an alias and attempted manipulation of the Wikipedia entry on Bingham. In July 2006, Wikipedia editor Elmer Clark wrote:

"Please back this up with a source other than this one website. This, and your dubious addition to Hiram Bingham [IV], as well as the fact that all your other edits are references to isurvived.org, makes it seem like you have an agenda. If you're going to add a section that basically says the rest of the article is bunk, please back it up with more than one source. -Elmer Clark 05:39, 29 July 2006 (UTC)"

A Wikipedia contributor later stated the following:

"the user Webville (who studied astronomy and doesn't seem qualified as a historian) whose only contributions to Wikipedia seem to be adding links to his site, which makes personal attacks on several survivors of the Holocaust. He has a personal agenda, and apparently has been in some legal soup as a result. The man can only cite his website as a source, all of the links he has been spamming wikipedia with should be removed considering his entire site is in question by professional historians and journalists. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 130.39.232.221 (talk • contribs) 4 August 2006."

Using another alias, Brattman disputed Wikipedia's questioning of his credibility. He called the editor a “Holocaust denier” and launched into a personal attack:

"…What then is exactly your beef with all this? If the site isurvived.org annoys you --for whatever reason (maybe you are a Holocaust denier, and that is fine with me), use another forum for your grievances as your referenced Tilove's article clearly was implanted by you for no other reason than to show yor [sic] true face and biases.

Bruce." [Kalman K. Brattman, undated entry]
In response to a request from a Wikipedia editor that he provide independent sources to support his claims, Brattman continues, using the alias "Bruce":

"That YOU have a problem with the decision of Yad Vashem to deny awarding Bingham IV with Israel's Righteous title is something that I or no one else can help you with that. That is YOUR problem for keeps.

"As with respect to your ‘explanation’ of WHY you referenced as a ‘significant’ article a muddling article of Tilove attacking isurvived.org and its editor --that explanation of yours is ludicrous. If some anonymous user would have told you that, for sure, he saw some pink elephants, then would you have posted that piece of information in here as both the pink elephants and the Tilove's article have nothing to do with the subject discussed in here?

"I cannot spend much more time with you, as in the end you will believe what you want to believe regardless of the facts involved. [Bruce]

"PS --From your various ‘explanations’ and ‘concerns,’ the readers can form a pretty good picture of the real you."

The Wikipedia editor Elmer Clark removed Brattman’s spurious edits and posted the following response on August 13, 2006:

"…Calling Bingham 'no hero' is a point of view and therefore I am proceeding to remove it, and reword your section significantly. If you can find a source other than isurvived.org indicating that Bingham 'was not a rescuer of Jews,' then that claim may stay; otherwise, it shall be removed as unverified, as you have failed provide references per WP:Verify's section on burden of evidence. I hope you now understand why your edits, as they stand now, are not acceptable. Please find a source for your claim that Bingham 'was not a rescuer of Jews.'"

A Wikipedia contributor was now aware of Brattman’s identity and responded:

"Interesting how Webville.org is the official site of Kalman Brattman (editor of iSurvived.org), yet the user Webville who spams countless articles with his link and attacks the memory of various Holocaust survivors refers to himself as 'Bruce' to make it appear as though its someone without a hidden agenda. Its even more laughable that any time someone edits his point of view contributions to articles or removes spam links, they are immediately branded a 'Holocaust Denier'. Google 'Kalman Brattman Rape' for details on the editor of iSurvived and learn more about his agenda."

The Wikipedia editor, Elmer Clark, then posted the following response:

"It is clear at this point that this user is editing in bad faith with the sole purpose of promoting his website and its agenda. I have removed all reference to it. -Elmer Clark 09:50, 17 August 2006 (UTC)"

The Wikipedia editor, Shimgray, then posted the following:

"I have blocked this user for a short period of time for repeatedly dumping material on here against apparent consensus, despite being warned. Webville - please provide a good reason to add this material in, and note it would be taken in better faith if it was cited from somewhere that didn't appear to be a site you are trying to incessantly promote. Shimgray | talk | 19:45, 17 August 2006 (UTC)"

A later entry sums up the Wikipedia editors' analysis of Kalman K. Brattman:

"I'm removing the paragraph, it was added under a false pretense. The supposed 'new' editor of the page refers to herself as 'Miriam', yet conveniently claims she has 'no clue' of who Webville is. Apparently Kalman forgot that 'Miriam' was one of the pseudonyms he was exposed for in the article http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/tilove072006.html . So you either have Kalman Brattman (with his hidden agendas) who has been banned from wikipedia for spamming, posting under an IP and using the exact same name used by a supposed contributor to iSurvived.org, or you have an actual woman named Miriam who contributes to iSurvived and is being deceiftul about her intentions in editing the page and denying knowledge of who Webville is (despite the fact that anyone who knows Brattman recognizes that its his official site). My vote is for the former, its a Brattman sockpuppet. I'm going to continue to edit the page as long as I know either Brattman or his imaginary staff are involved in the edits."

NINTH PHASE: BRATTMAN ATTACKS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY

In April 2010, Brattman attacked a respected member of the Washington community for proposing that Yad Vashem honor a helper of Jews in Tunisia during the Holocaust. Dr. Robert Satloff, the Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, DC, petitioned Yad Vashem to award Khaled Abdul-Wahab to be honored as Righteous Among the Nations. Yad Vashem turned down the request, saying that his actions were admirable, but that he broke no laws in hiding Jews on his estate during the Nazi occupation. Brattman again took up the mantle of the self-righteous defender of Jewish history and remembrance. On April 17, 2010, Brattman insulted Dr. Satloff on Isurvived.org: “Dr. Satloff’s campaign is in fact about something totally different: it is about himself and nothing else, using the Holocaust, in a cynical way, to advance his own personal glorification and nothing else. It is utterly absurd indeed to think, even for one second, that the finding of a Righteous Arab (real or imaginary) will change anything in any way. […] The sacred grounds of the Holocaust need not be transformed into playgrounds of advancing personal agendas.”

Again, Brattman set himself up as a defender of Holocaust truth. Satloff is indeed justified in trying to have a rescuer of Jews honored in the one place that does so. Because the rescuer he proposed to honor does not meet Yad Vashem’s strict criteria does not mean that Satloff should be insulted and demeaned for his efforts.

In May 2010, Brattman attacked the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, DC. He questioned their placing of a memorial plaque on temple grounds to honor individuals who helped Jews during the Shoah. The temple called their memorial “The Garden of the Righteous.” In his 5-page screed, Brattman states: “That Garden of the Adas Israel Congregation has been transformed into a front to use the Holocaust and its tragic legacy into a cynical devise, through a despicable scheme, to make a quick buck at the expense of History, of the Holocaust, and of the true heroes and heroines of the Holocaust as recognized by Yad Vashem.” Brattman, in his paranoid rant, insults this innocent act of recognizing rescuers of the Holocaust, stating: “There are ways and ways to make a buck. There is nothing, but absolutely nothing, lower in ethics, morality, or ordinary decency than that of using the Holocaust and its tragic legacy, to make money out of a deceiving scheme to circumvent the judgment of Yad Vashem and of the Jewish State, and—in the process—of tarnishing the names of the true heroes and heroines of the Holocaust. If Adas Israel Congregation is not corrupted to its core and still has left one ounce of decency, then it should return the money pocketed from those that provided to circumvent Yad Vashem and make sure that all its honorees, in the future, are in fact true Righteous Among the Nations as recognized by Yad Vashem and no one else and, stop including those that were specifically rejected by Yad Vashem regardless how lucrative such a disgusting scheme could be.”

Brattman continually accuses others of attempting to make money on the Holocaust, when clearly that is his goal in soliciting donations for his bogus websites.